Fortnite Season 7 is here and with it the huge map changes a new season promises. This is the biggest season of changes yet, replete with a new skin system, massive map changes, new Battle Pass challenges, new vehicles and whole new ways to traverse the map. As is the usual for a new Fortnite season, there is a lot to get through, so we’ll do our best to document and explain as many changes as we can throughout this article.
This season’s theme is essentially ‘white Christmas’ and all the fun thematic additions that entails. The biggest of these changes is undoubtedly the revamp to the map.
Fortnite Season 7 Map
Just like in Season 5 when the southeast version of the map morphed into a desert, we’ve gone the other way and turned the southwest version of the map into a frozen wasteland. The region extends from Snobby Shores all the way down to Lucky Landing, with new landmass being added in the most southwestern regions.
The more northern areas of the frozen zone are still quite similar. Tilted Towers and Snobby Shores are still essentially the same, just covered in snow. It’s the southern areas of the tundra that are completely unique. In addition to more landmass being added, older locations have been removed with new locations added.
New Named Locations
Frosty Flights
An airfield located on the new landmass, filled with hangars, lookout towers, the new biplane and new fancy looking red arctic buildings. You’ll find it at around A8 and B8 on the main map’s grid.
Happy Hamlet
Happy Hamlet is a nordic styled village at the southernmost edge of the map. The buildings here are of an entirely unique design to the map. You can find it at D9 on the main map’s grid.
Polar Peaks
Polar Peaks is the last new named location to the map and is essentially the a large mountain with a few buildings atop of it that overlook the rest of the tundra. You’ll find it on the intersection of C7 and C8 on the main map’s grid.
Other Map Additions & Changes
There are plenty of major changes for Fortnite Season 7, including Greasy Grove disappearing. Some of the houses have their roofs poking up above the snow, which still contain the usual attic loot you’d find in a normal house, but you can’t go to any floor below this as it is completely snowed in. The outdoors store, however, can still be accessed through the roof.
Remnants of Greasy Grove
Other changes to named locations include the complete removal of Flush Factory (but not the large, unnamed factory close to it) and Leaky Lake once again being renamed to Loot Lake.
There are other notable changes as well, including the addition of red arctic buildings popping up all over the map, which usually signifies an area that spawns the new biplane and contain a bit of decent loot.
Red Arctic Buildings
There are other notable changes as well, including the addition of red arctic buildings popping up all over the map, which usually signifies an area that spawns the new biplane and contain a bit of decent loot.
You can find these all over the map now, even in locations that aren’t frozen over, but you will find the highest concentration of them there. These essentially act as a method to have biplanes spawn in areas that aren’t the frozen tundra and considering how powerful (and cool) the new vehicle is, that’s a wise decision.
Ziplines
One of the biggest changes to the map is the placement of ziplines all over, including the non-frozen regions. If you run or jump into one of these zip lines, you’ll be magnetized to it and start sliding along it. These let you traverse large gaps and change altitudes very quickly without the use of a vehicle.
Giant Wooden Sleigh
Finally, the giant wooden chair has been replaced by a giant wooden sleigh, as is appropriate for the festive theme.
That about wraps up the map changes in particular, but there are two more major changes to Season 7 that are worth covering in this article: the biplane and gun and vehicle skins.
X-4 Stormwing Plane
As you’ve no doubt seen (or at least seen me reference), the X-4 Stormwing Plane is an entirely new type of vehicle that allows for essentially unlimited flight. They function much like you’d expect (they have their own binds and control scheme, so make sure to check your options before you try to fly them, the default binds were confusing for me), they can do flips, loop-dee-loops and the often confused aileron rolls (double tap your roll button to do this), amongst some other very cool aerial tricks.
The most important part, however, is that they have twin machine guns attached to them, making the biplane extremely powerful. The guns fire fast, are considerably accurate considering the range you’ll use them at and do 30 damage per bullet. The only drawback is the bullets do have a slight travel time. Factoring in all these things however, a really talented pilot can absolutely shred not only other biplanes, but ground-bound players as well, from relative safety.
Additionally, the biplane itself has 800 HP making it able to weather quite a bit of fire from multiple sources and even when it does get destroyed, you will automatically ditch the plane (without taking damage) and be given the option to deploy their glider. This makes the use of a plane for both survival and attacking purposes extremely low risk, even in the earlier game as being shot down has very little risk associated with it as you can just deploy your glider after ditching the plane.
Finally, you can be shot out from the plane and enemies (and allies) can sit on the wings. Beware though: if an enemy does get onto your wing, there is nothing you can do to shake them off (not even a roll) and they can still fire on you from their position on the wing. This will essentially force you to ditch, so try to resist the temptation of swooping an enemy so low that they can jump on and end your game.
All-in-all, the biplanes are probably the coolest addition to Fortnite period (in my opinion at least). But they are extremely powerful, so you best get used to playing against them and get used to flying them when the need arises, as the ability to sit high up away from danger really would improve your chances of receiving that much coveted Victory Royale. It would be surprising if they don’t receive some nerfs in the future, as they may come to dominant Fortnite.
Weapon and Vehicle Skins
The final big change for Season 7 is the addition of weapon skins. Fairly self-explanatory and a fairly natural extension of normal skins, but cool nonetheless. This new system allows you to equip a skin to the various weapon types and vehicles available.
This essentially gives you more collectibles to hunt for, which is always a welcome addition to a game in which cosmetics are the only meaningful form of progression. For the absolute min-maxers this also means you could pick camouflage for certain areas of the map (arctic camouflage for the snow areas) to gain that very slight edge.
All in all, Season 7’s changes have been the biggest and best yet, both in terms of map changes and spicing up the gameplay. The addition of new ways to travel and new cosmetics to unlock will certainly keep players coming back and attract new players to the already massive behemoth that is Fortnite. Stagnating gameplay is possibly the biggest threat to this game’s longevity and Epic show a keen awareness of that fact and did a good job addressing it with the Season 7 changes. So kudos to Epic.
MORE FORTNITE:
– Fortnite Season 7 Battle Pass Trailer Confirms Weapon Skins, Onesie, Planes & More
– Fortnite Season 7’s Christmas Trailer Hints At Crackshot Return, Santa Skin
– Fortnite Skins Are Being “Raffled” On eBay
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